This blog has nothing to do with gorillas (though I love 'em)...fellow bloggers have inspired me to share vintage images of Disneyland from my personal collection. But don't be surprised if you see something from a World's Fair, Knott's Berry Farm, or someplace else that is cool!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

One of the simple joys of a ride aboard the Disneyland Omnibus is the elevated perspective that a guest experiences. 12 feet (or so) up in the air feels plenty high in this scaled-down environment. In this first photo we can see the Surrey with its shrunkified horses; each bench in the background has a colorful umbrella to provide shade in August.

A second photo captures the Horse Drawn Streetcar and the brand-new Matterhorn.

The are turning Carnation Gardens into a new Fantasyland area with new buildings and a princess greeting section.

I am thinking that they are doing this in order to free up the area near the Toontown train station where the meet and greet now exists. If they take that huge stage area down, Disney would then have about 1-2 acres of land to either add more Fantasyland rides or expand Frontierland into that area.

Mike, don't forget the yeti, who caused many unfortunate avalanches as well.

OC Native, I guess you are talking about the same thing that TokyoMagic! is. Those stupid meet 'n greets, I guess they must be hugely popular. CHEAP, as well, and something tells me that's the key word. Once again, they are removing a feature that could be enjoyed by everyone and turning it into something aimed at little girls. ToonTown has so little going on, at least if they had the princesses there, it would make it one more reason for folks to go there (I only go for the Roger Rabbit attraction... a whole "land" for one ride! What a waste).

Major, I was kidding about it being called "Princessland", but not about the Plaza Gardens being converted into a Princess themed area.

I thought I heard that the Princess meet and greet was being moved out of the Fantasyland theater NOT so that it could be torn down, but so that a new stage show could be developed for it. I do wish they would tear it down and build some more attractions.....give us more rides, gosh darn it!

You are preaching to the choir about Toontown only having one good ride.....yeah, what a huge waste of such a valuable piece of land!

TM!, there's something off-putting about the idea of the princesses encroaching on what used to be part of Main Street USA.

I have some dark ride suggestions for Fantasyland. There's a "Mr. Toad" attraction; how about an "Ichabod/Sleepy Hollow" attraction? COME ON! Make it fun and scary. Or even a "Brave Little Tailor" dark ride. I can practically see the whole thing in my noggin.

I can kinda see a Princess something near the castle but there are 3 problems, IMHO:

-Using the Princesses in that way focuses on exploiting them as celebrity and status objects, subtly undermining if not perverting the themes in the stories of the values of individuality and true love that it was all built upon. That's not really so good for the kids and not really all good for Disney either. No one will think to complain but it'll slowly weaken their appeal to more surface levels.

-Leaning too much on the Princesses franchising stuff encourages chasing / milking trends instead of making them. They do too much of that already...

-There are hidden costs in diluting themes like they have been to Main St and other areas. The Gardens handled right, as opposed to treating it like a neglected space that's in the way, is a great idea for making the guest experience more diverse and attractive.

At the same time they are blowing money redoing stuff that's either best original or ought to go. Could stand to smarten up to themselves a bit over there.

I heard the Princessland rumor from a Cast Member last week. Apparently true.

Those "meet and greets" are HUGE. The longest lines we saw last week were for those events, when Indiana jones was a walk-on. And yes, they must be cheap.

But the "sickest" thing we saw was the BibbidiBobbideBoutique, where your pre-school girl can buy her preferred princess dress ($64.95) and then get a hairdo and makeup treatment like Mom, for big $$$. We saw scores of these kids prancing around the parks. Disney must be raking in the money on this idea. Creepy.